By now, many people recycle as a matter of routine. They also switch off lights at home and make sure they don’t leave the DVD player and television on standby – then forget every environmental principle they ever knew as soon as they enter the workplace.

According to a survey of 1,800 people from Envirowise, a UK government-funded agency that offers environmental advice to businesses, one-third took no action at all to help the environment during the day, when outside the domestic environment.